Friday, March 1, 2013

Drumline Live from Africa to Smoky Robinson and Hip Hop

Review
of Drum Line Live

Benedum
Center Show of 2-26-2013

Date
2-28-2013

Drumline
Live

Participating
in a Feast of Soul

By

Hank
Walshak

Listening to a drum line
hypnotizes me. The staccato beats. The syncopated rhythms. Thedrummer's acrobatic hand movements. The
counterpoised sounds. All of which goes on as the drummers complete their
ensemble and solo numbers while they march in intricate, high-stepping patterns. The whole thing gets into the marrow of my bones. And I’m hooked,
heart and soul, diggin' it, with feet tap, tap, tapping.

I first got hooked on the movie Drumline a few years back starring
Orlando Jones and Nick Cannon. As I watched this film unfold, I kept saying to
myself, “I wish I could see that in person.”

Well, on February 26, I got my
wish at the Benedum Center, when my wife, Jeannette, and I thrilled to Drumline Live, hosted by Slater Thorpe.
This show put it all out there --from the drum cadences and riffs and the brass
melodies to the singers, the alto-sax and trumpet soloists, and the dancers who
glided as if by unseen hands through their numbers. The physical energy of it
all never let up.

To say I was astonished would be
an understatement. Don Roberts. Creator/ Director/Musical Director had the wizardry
to capture the musicality and choreography that blare out on the football field
to the restricted area of the theater stage. No small feat that.

Roberts had collaborated as a
band consultant with the makers of Drum
Line, the movie. Now, his Drumline
Live captures the sparkle and unbounded electricity of the movie with the in-person energy of marching bands composed of students from Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

Make no mistake about Drumline Live. This show prompted far more
than just having audience members sit back and watch and listen. Nosiree. At
set times, band members paraded up and down the aisles, playing and singing
their hearts out andthose of us in the audience rang
out loud with our cheers, bravos, and clenched fists waving above our heads.
Talk about involvement personified.

Taken as a whole, this production
traced the history of black music from its unheralded roots in Africa to the
strains of black congregations across the land chantingabout the Good
News.

The show brought to mind the
pre-eminence and contributions of black singers, composers, and producers to
create this black genre of modern, American music.

Who can think of artists like Ray
Charles, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, and Marvin Gaye without smiling and
remembering their music sound for sound and word for word? Who can forget Smokey Robbins
with his Motown sound, and the black
stars and music he produced in the fifties and sixties?

Along the way, the cast of this
production made real for us the singin' sounds of the big bands from days long
gone to a half-time show without equal, and a drum battle between two players,
with the audience choosing the winner with heaps of applause.

The performance ended with
out-of-this-world dancing and music that brought back the best of Hip-Hop from
the 80's and 90's.

The ultimate conclusion came with
the entire case marching up the aisles to the foyer of Benedum Center, there to
talk, laugh, and enjoy with the audience streaming out afterwards.

If you were looking for soul. You
found it here. From start to finish, Drumline
Live spoke to our hearts with plenty of not-to-be-forgotten soul, soul,
soul and more soul.